Houston Texans 16 – New York Giants 14
Game Overview: I just had a feeling heading into this one that the game would be trouble. Houston had been playing better in recent weeks and the Giants were arriving with a lot of key players missing such as DT Keith Hamilton, DT Cornelius Griffin, WR Ike Hilliard, WR Ron Dixon, WR Tim Carter, OC Dusty Zeigler, and OC Chris Bober. On top of that, the Giants had 5-6 players suffering from flu. LT Luke Petitgout was throwing up before the game and MLB Mike Barrow was throwing up during the game. Two defensive starters – CB Will Peterson and FS Omar Stoutmire – were forced to leave with injuries.
Does that mean the Giants should have lost to the Texans? No, of course not. But one cannot simply discount the injury situation. Both of the Giants’ starting defensive tackles were journeymen and neither made a tackle or an assist on Sunday. Third-string center Jason Whittle and back-up right guard Tam Hopkins had all kinds of problems – both physical and mental – pass blocking (and Whittle wasn’t sharp run blocking either). Wide receivers Daryl Jones, Herman Moore, and Derek Dorris couldn’t get open. I guarantee you this game is far different if even some of the missing starters played, but because they didn’t, the game was bound to be closer than it should have been.
Still, the Giants would have won had the special teams not gotten dramatically out-played in almost all facets (this was my worry in my “Game Preview”) and QB Kerry Collins didn’t come up with yet another stinker. The Giants lost the field position war because of crappy punting, they gave up 5 points with a botched longsnap and short field goal, and they gave up a big punt return that set up Houston’s sole touchdown. Collins was wild all day – even early in the game when the pass rush wasn’t getting to him. Twice in the last 6 minutes of the game – when the team was attempting to work itself into game-winning field goal position – he threw damaging interceptions.
Too many injuries, the flu, bad special teams, and poor quarterbacking equals defeat to an expansion team.
Special Teams: If nothing else had changed other than the fact that PK Matt Bryant made his 33-yarder and Longsnapper Bob Jones had not sailed the snap over P Matt Allen’s head, the Giants would have won the game. The 5 points surrendered by these two were the difference in the ball game. Special teams cost the Giants the game.
But it didn’t stop there. The Giants gave up a 39-yard punt return that set the Texans up on the Giants’ 34-yard line. The short-field enabled the Texans to put together their only TD drive of the game (and the ensuing 2-point conversion). Missing early tackles on the return were Damon Washington and Reggie Stephens. But a host of other Giants had a shot at Jermaine Lewis too. And Matt Allen was downright awful again. He was dramatically out-punted by Houston’s punter and this led to the Giants’ losing the field position war throughout the game. Allen’s punts went for 33 yards (3-yard return – Kevin Lewis making the tackle), 31 yards (1 yard – Omar Stoutmire and Marcellus Rivers), 36 yards (fair catch), 46 yards (but this went into the end zone so the net was 26), 24 yards, and 37 yards (39-yard return – Johnnie Harris).
Let’s be honest. Matt Allen sucks. The only reason he is on the roster is that he did a better job of holding for Bryant on the field goal unit. You don’t pick your punter based on his holding ability!!! This mess goes all the way back to training camp when Fassel didn’t have Jesse Palmer and Jason Garrett work with Bryant from the get-go. Tom Rouen should have been the punter on Sunday, not Allen. And why is Bob Jones still on the team Mr. Fassel and Mr. Accorsi??? Two weeks ago he lost his long snapping job on field goals because he was so bad. One week ago, his longsnap to Allen on a punt was poor (and he held on the play). Your failure to get rid of Jones on Sunday and find a replacement may have cost you a playoff spot. Pretty stupid.
Allen’s free kick after the safety went for 55 yards and the tackle was made again by Rivers. LB Wes Mallard was flagged for holding on a punt, but he also came darn close to blocking two punts. DE Byron Frisch jumped offsides on the opening kickoff.
Bryant’s kickoffs landed at the 9, 3, and 5. Kickoff coverage was decent. Jermaine Lewis had returns of 25 (Johnnie Harris), 40 yards (Marcellus Rivers – a holding penalty on the Texans brought this one back to the 15), and 22 yards (Ralph Brown).
Delvin Joyce is looking more and more comfortable on his punt and kick returns, though there was one punt that hit the ground that he should have fielded. A combination of good punting by Houston and some poor blocking hurt his cause on a few punt returns. Delvin’s punt returns went for 0 (fair catch), 0, 0 (fair catch), 17, 8, and 0. On the last attempt, Ralph Brown and DeWayne Patmon blew the double-team block on the gunner. His kick returns went for 18, 46, and 18 yards. The 46-yarder was exceptionally well-blocked.
Quarterback: QB Kerry Collins played as bad as his stats indicate (18/41 for 214 yards, 1 touchdown, 2 interceptions – a less than 44% completion rate). A lot has been made in the press that Collins was under duress much of the game from the Houston pass rush. This is true. But Collins was off even before the pass rush started to get to him. Drives ended because Collins’ passes sailed wide, low, or high of the intended receiver. He threw into coverage and double-coverage way too much and threw two very costly interceptions. I know Collins misses his other receivers, but he has to start doing a better job of throwing accurately.
Collins’ first pass of the game was a slant pass to Daryl Jones that was thrown too low. Then on 3rd-and-15, despite having time, he threw a 1-yard pass to Tiki Barber over the middle. That’s not going to get it done. On the next possession, Collins threw to a well-covered Amani Toomer on 3rd-and-6 and the pass fell incomplete – again Collins had time on this play. On the next drive, Collins overthrew Herman Moore on 2nd-and-9 and 3rd-and-9.
In the second quarter, the pass rush started to become more of a factor and this only exacerbated things. Collins got immediate pressure from his left and threw an ill-advised pass to Toomer that was almost intercepted. Two plays later, from the 50, Collins had a man in his face and threw into double coverage to FB Charles Stackhouse; luckily the pass was incomplete. On 3rd-and-6, Collins badly overthrew TE Jeremy Shockey and the Giants had to punt again. Next drive, a 2nd-and-10 pass to Shockey was thrown into the ground and a 3rd-and-10 slant pass to Daryl Jones was thrown too low; Collins acted hurried on this play despite having decent protection. Then came the Giants’ sole TD drive in the first half and that was pretty much all Tiki Barber.
On the Giants’ final “drive” right before half, Collins really ticked me off. Facing a 2nd-and-3 from the Houston 49-yard line with 47 seconds left. Collins scrambled right out of the pocket and had nothing but open ground in front of him in order to scramble for the first down. Instead, Collins threw the ball away. On the next play, Collins was sacked and the ensuing punt was the play where the snap went over Allen’s head for a safety. Had Collins simply run for the easy first down, none of that would have happened.
Third quarter. After completing passes to Toomer for 8 yards and Shockey for 15 yards, Collins over threw Shockey again. Three back-to-back-to-back offensive line penalties then ended the drive. It looked like the Giants were moving on the next drive. Collins hit Toomer for 20 yards on 3rd-and-7. Then Collins missed a wide open Toomer near the end zone on a deep pass as he had pressure in his face and couldn’t step up. On 3rd-and-10, Collins found Shockey for 14 yards. But Collins was inaccurate on his next two throws to Shockey and the Giants were forced to attempt a field goal (which they missed). On the next drive, the Giants scored as Collins somehow got the ball to Toomer, who then broke a tackle and ran into the end zone.
The final two drives were disastrous for Collins and the Giants. On 1st-and-10, Collins didn’t see the dropping linebacker in front of Amani Toomer and was lucky the pass was not picked off. On 2nd-and-20, Collins overthrew Amani Toomer. On 3rd-and-20, Collins forced the ball into a double-covered Derek Dorris and the pass was intercepted (there were actually four Texan defenders in the area of Dorris). On the last legitimate chance to win the game, Collins did a nice job of hitting Toomer on a deep in-route for 16-yards on 3rd-and-9. But on 2nd-and-12 from the Houston 33-yard line, Collins came under immediate pressure and just threw the ball up for grabs in the vicinity of Shockey and the pass was intercepted. Game over. The special teams lost this game, but so did Kerry Collins. You can criticize Fassel all you want, but Fassel wasn’t the one who was terribly inaccurate on Sunday. The game plan wasn’t the problem – Collins was. Go back and look at how many drives ended because Collins threw a bad pass.
Wide Receivers: The only one showing up seems to be Amani Toomer (8 catches for 113 yards, 1 touchdown). Why? First, no one seemed to deal particularly well with the press coverage and no one got much separation. Obviously, it isn’t realistic for Collins to be in sync with Derek Dorris and Herman Moore. Dorris was on the 3rd team at camp and Moore only has a handful of practices under his belt. These two may not be running the right routes and/or Collins may not be trusting them to run the right routes. For example, on the two overthrows to Moore – was the problem with Collins or Moore? I have no idea. Daryl Jones did catch an 18-yarder on a nice crossing route, but Collins badly underthrew him on two slant patterns. It doesn’t seem that Collins trusts him either. (Jones was flagged with a false start penalty too for the second week in a row). Toomer’s big play of the game was the TD reception where he showed great concentration despite being held and then shielded from the ball. He then broke a tackle and scored from 31-yards out. My only negative comment on him is that I spotted him missing a block on an early Tiki Barber run to the right side.
Tight Ends: Jeremy Shockey (4 catches for 60 yards) and Dan Campbell (1 catch for 3 yards) were surprisingly quiet on Sunday. I don’t know what was happening with Campbell, but Houston seemed to do a good job of pushing and holding Shockey in order to disrupt the timing between him and Kerry Collins. It also didn’t help that Collins’ throws were off the mark much of the day – though perhaps this had to do with Shockey being in the wrong place too. Whatever the case, the Giants obviously needed more out of Shockey on Sunday and didn’t get it. Both the blocking of Shockey and Campbell was a bit up-and-down. Both did a great job of picking up the blitz on the 20-yard pass to Toomer on 3rd-and-7 in the 3rd quarter. But I saw one play where Shockey got beat on a running play as did Campbell on another. Campbell also got called for a very costly holding penalty on 2nd-and-10 from the Houston 50 with six and a half minutes left in the game. Two plays later, on 3rd-and-20, Collins was intercepted. Campbell still doesn’t look real smooth as the lead blocker from the fullback spot – I think part of the problem is that he is too tall.
Offensive Line: Terrible. I expected some of this with Whittle being the new center and Hopkins the new right guard. But Mike Rosenthal was bull-rushed a few times. Seubert and Whittle had problems getting movement inside. Hopkins was weak in pass protection. And Luke, who was playing with a bad case of the flu, even had his problems in pass protection. Fassel said it best – Houston played a more aggressive and physical game up front then the Giants did. When you lose in the trenches like that, it is tough to win a ball game.
Some of the low lights: Rosenthal jumped on the second drive, putting the Giants in 3rd-and-15. On the next drive, both Whittle and Petitgout missed their blocks and Barber was stuffed. Next drive, Hopkins steps on Collins’ foot, causing Collins to fall and get sacked. On the next drive, Petitgout was beat outside and an incompletion resulted. Two plays later, Rosenthal was bull-rushed and Collins threw into double coverage. Barber picked up 4 yards despite Petitgout being beat to the inside. Next drive, Petitgout and Campbell are beat and Dayne is stuffed. Hopkins is beat on the pass rush and Collins is hit as he throws. Final drive before halftime, Whittle is beat on 3rd-and-3 for a 10-yard sack. On the next play, Bob Jones hands Houston 2 points.
Second half: Rosenthal is beat and Barber is nailed in the backfield. Whittle is flagged for holding, turning a 3rd-and-5 into a 3rd-and-15. On the next play two plays, both Rosenthal and Hopkins jump, turning a 3rd-and-15 into a 3rd-and-25. Sickening and a great way to start the second half! Next drive, Seubert fails to pick up the blitz and the pass falls incomplete. Hopkins gets beat, resulting in another incompletion – this time on a wide open Toomer near the goal line. Rosenthal is bull-rushed again – incomplete. Giants miss a field goal. Giants’ last legit drive, on 1st-and-10 from Houston’s 31-yard line, Barber is nailed in the backfield as Seubert and Whittle can’t get any movement at the point-of-attack (this also happened earlier in the game). The next play is the final interception that sealed the deal for the Texans. On this play, Fassel said there was confusion between Whittle and Hopkins on the assignment and both let the blitzing linebacker come free to force the pick.
Running Backs: Things did not start off well at all for Barber (19 carries for 146 yards, 1 touchdown; 4 catches for 20 yards) as he fumbled the ball away on the Giants’ first offensive snap. But he put up super numbers despite getting little assistance from his blocking mates. For example, on the Giants’ 3rd possession, Tiki bounced the play outside for 12 yards after the middle of the field was jammed up by Houston defenders. Then came his 70-yard spectacular run where Tiki reversed his field to the left, broke two tackles, and then kept his balance along the sideline. Indeed, it was one of the best runs by a back in Giants’ history. Two plays later, Tiki ran for 7 yards on his own to the outside on a play that again that was not well-blocked. Two plays after that, he followed blocks from Rich Seubert and Stackhouse for 2-yards and a touchdown. Again, it was a great effort run. There was one great run by Barber in the 3rd quarter that only picked up 3 yards, but on the play, Barber reversed his field twice and bounced off a couple of tacklers. On the Giants’ last legitimate drive, Barber broke off a 19-yard run behind Rosenthal and Hopkins as he broke two tackles and powered over a third tackler. Barber did a nice job on two blitz pick-ups that I spotted, but also missed his man on another. (FYI, Barber was not supposed to pick up the blitzing linebacker on the play where Collins’ threw the last interception).
Ron Dayne (5 carries for 21 yards) looked pretty good and did a nice job of following Rosenthal and Hopkins on a couple of right side runs in the second half. Earlier in the game, in the second quarter, he picked up 8-yards on a run around left end and two plays later picked up the first down all on his own on a play that was not well-blocked. Dayne did miss one blitz pick-up that I spotted.
Defensive Line: The defense didn’t struggle too much as Houston lacks a lot of experienced talent. Both defensive ends – Michael Strahan (7 tackles, 2 sacks) and Kenny Holmes (7 tackles, 3 sacks) were extremely active and were a factor in rushing the passer and playing the run. Hugely disappointing were Dwight Johnson (0 tackles) and Lance Legree (0 tackles). Both were a non-factor against a mediocre offensive line. Yikes!
On Houston’s first offensive play, Strahan nailed HB Jonathan Wells in the backfield and forced a fumble that Houston unfortunately recovered. Two plays later, Strahan stunted to the inside and sacked QB David Carr. Two drives later, another pressure from Strahan forced an incompletion on 2nd-and-6.
On Houston’s fourth drive of the game, Holmes sacked Carr on 2nd-and-20. On the next play, he did a great job of holding the point-of-attack, playing off the block and tackling HB James Allen for a 1-yard loss. However, on the next drive, Holmes, Legree, Brandon Short, and Shaun Williams were all blocked on Wells run to the left for 15-yards. Two plays later, penetration by Strahan enabled Brandon Short to finish off Well for a 6-yard loss on a right-side run. On the same drive, Holmes once again held his ground, played off the block, and made the tackle – this time for a 3-yard loss – but Legree was flagged for defensive holding giving the Texans a first down on what should have been 3rd-and-10. Later in the second quarter, Holmes sacked Carr again – this time on 3rd-and-4. At the end of the first half, Strahan pressured Carr and Holmes cleaned up with his third sack of the game.
In the 3rd quarter, another pressure from Strahan forced an incompletion on Houston’s first drive of the second half. On Houston’s next drive, Strahan sacked Carr on 2nd-and-8, but a personal foul penalty on Dwight Johnson gave the Texans a first down. The next drive was the game-winning field goal drive for the Texans. It started off with a 6-yard gain by Wells as Legree, DE Frank Ferrara, and Dhani Jones were all blocked. Three plays later, Holmes made a nice play by stuffing Wells for a 1-yard gain on 2nd-and-2. However, on the very next play, Ferrara was crushed at the point-of-attack and the Texans picked up the first down on 3rd-and-1. Holmes did get blocked inside on a 9-yard run late in the 4th quarter (it looked like Holmes slanted inside and took himself out of the play). DT Matt Mitrione, however, forced the Texans to punt when he tackled Allen for no gain on 3rd-and-4. Strahan was the one responsible for Wells’ 10-yard run on 3rd-and-11 on Houston’s last possession. Strahan lost contain on the backside of the play.
Legree and Johnson were invisible. To make matters worse, Legree got outside his pass rush lane a couple of times, enabling Carr to scramble for good yardage, including a 20-yard scamper. Legree not only had the costly holding penalty, but also missed a tackle on Allen the backfield on a run that turned into a 6-yard gain. Frank Ferrara disappointed in spot duty.
Linebackers: Kudos to Mike Barrow (6 tackles) who gutted it out by playing through the flu and despite having to vomit on the field because of it. However, Barrow did drop what could have been a touchdown-scoring interception on Houston’s second offensive play when he did a great job of reading the pass to Corey Bradford underneath. Near the beginning of the 2nd quarter, Barrow hit Wells in the hole on 2nd-and-6 for no gain. Later in the quarter, he did so again (this time for a 1-yard gain) as Michael slid down the line to hit Wells in the hole. Barrow, Dhani Jones, and Holmes then did a great job of sniffing out a screen pass and causing a 2-yard loss. However, Barrow was beat in coverage by James Allen for the 2-point conversion – key when your remember the difference in the score. Later in the quarter, Barrow meet Wells in the hole again, limiting him to 2 yards.
I thought Dhani Jones (7 tackles) would be playing better than he has thus far this year. He’s doing alright in pass coverage – which was Jessie Armstead’s big weakness last year – but he’s still getting knocked around too much in the ground game. I would also like to see him become a more forceful tackler. Dhani did recover the fumble by Allen early in the first quarter. Two drives later, he combined with CB Will Peterson to slam Allen on a run around left end. In the 3rd quarter, Jones missed a key tackle in the backfield on 2nd-and-goal from the 4-yard line. This misplay probably cost the Giants 5 points as Wells got to the 1-yard and scored on the next play (the Texans converted the 2-point conversion attempt). Jones made an excellent play in the flat by sprinting over and tackling Wells for a 3-yard loss near the end of the 3rd quarter. But in the 4th quarter, on Houston’s game-winning field goal drive, Jones ran himself out of the play on a 6-yard run to his side that was instrumental in getting into field goal range (it was also a strange unbalanced formation by New York that contributed to the success of this play).
What gives me hope for Dhani is to see how far Brandon Short (5 tackles) has improved from his first to second year as starter. Short is developing into quite an active strongside linebacker. After years of guys such as Corey Miller, Marcus Buckley, and Ryan Phillips – Short is finally turning a position that had been a short-coming on the team to an asset. However, Short was pretty quiet in this game. Short had good coverage on TE Billy Miller on the 3rd-and-6 play on Houston’s second drive. In the 4th quarter, Short nailed Wells for no gain on a 2nd-and-4 effort on the Giants’ 32-yard line. Late in the 4th quarter, on the play where Holmes ran himself out of the play and Wells picked up 9 yards, Short got clobbered.
Defensive Backs: This group wasn’t challenged much as Houston’s passing attack is pretty pathetic. It was obvious that Houston’s receivers were having problems getting open, but there were some very untimely miscues by the Giants. Still, Carr only completed 10 passes for 103 yards in the game.
The big play given up was a 42-yarder by CB Jason Sehorn as he was inexcusably beaten by TE Billy Miller down the right sideline. What’s worse, Sehorn interfered with Miller on the play. This was the play that was instrumental in setting up Houston’s first field goal. Two plays later, DeWayne Patmon missed a tackle on Miller who then picked up 10-yards on the play. In the second quarter, Shaun Williams (8 tackles) supplied good coverage on a deep pass to Miller, when he was locked up one-on-one on him. Miller picked up 9-yards on 3rd-and-9 when Sehorn made a wimpy attempt to tackle him short of the first down. A key play in the game was when Will Allen was beaten for 16-yards on 3rd-and-6 from the Giants’ 30 yard line. This kept alive the drive where the Texans ultimately scored 8 points. What I didn’t like about the play is that the Giants only rushed 3 men. I don’t like doing this given the down, distance, and situation.
The entire Giants’ defense was burned on the halfback pass to Carr except for Shaun Williams. The play had been designed to be a pass play from Carr to the tight end, but Williams stayed at home. Near the end of the 3rd quarter, Allen got beat by Bradford again on 3rd-and-4, but the receiver dropped the ball. Lucky. In the 4th quarter, on Houston’s game-winning field goal drive, Sehorn played far too off WR Jabar Gaffney on a 9-yard pass on 1st-and-10. Shaun Williams blitzed and forced Carr to unload quickly on 3rd-and-4. On Houston’s last two offensive possession, Williams made two excellent plays in the backfield, tackling Allen for a 3-yard loss and Wells for a 3-yard loss.
Johnnie Harris (4 tackles) played most of the game at free safety and was not exploited.